Jim Samson
Thomas James Samson, FBA (born 6 July 1946), commonly known as Jim Samson, is a musicologist and retired academic. Described as "a leading authority on the music of Chopin", his research extends to Romantic music, early 20th-century classical music and the music of east Central Europe in general.
Also recorded as Thomas James Samson
Jim Samson
- Born
- 1946
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Occupation
- musicologist · music critic · university teacher · editor · composer
- Fields
- musicology · music criticism
- Education
- Queen's University Belfast
- Honours
- Fellow of the British Academy
- Languages
- English
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Jim Samson. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q3808377 · wikipedia · Jim Samson
In this article
Life and career
Jim Samson studied at Queen's University Belfast. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is musicology and music criticism. Employment is recorded with Royal Holloway, University of London, University of Bristol and University of Exeter. Distinctions recorded are Fellow of the British Academy.
Thomas James Samson was born on 6 July 1946 in Carnlough in Northern Ireland. Educated at Queen's University Belfast (BMus) and studied with Arnold Whittall at the University College, Cardiff (MMus, PhD). Samson was appointed to a research fellowship at the University of Leicester in 1972. He moved to the University of Exeter in 1973 as a lecturer; promotions followed, to reader in 1987 and Professor of Musicology in 1992. In 1994, he was appointed Stanley Hugh Badock Professor of Music at the University of Bristol, and was then Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, between 2002 and 2011.
Selected publications
• Music in Transition: A Study of the Tonal Expansion and Early Atonality, 1900–1920 (Dent, 1977; reprinted in 1993). • The Music of Szymanowski (Kahn and Averill, 1980). • The Music of Chopin (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985; reprinted by Clarendon Press, 1994). • Chopin: The Four Ballades (Cambridge University Press, 1992). • (Editor) The Cambridge Companion to Chopin (Cambridge University Press, 1992). • Chopin (Oxford University Press, 1996). • (Editor) The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music (Cambridge University Press, 2002). • Virtuosity and the Musical Work: the Transcendental Studies of Liszt (Cambridge University Press, 2003). • (Edited with J. P. E. Harper-Scott) Introduction to Music Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2008). • Music in the Balkans (Brill, 2013). • (Edited with Nicoletta Demetriou) Music in Cyprus (Routledge, 2015).
Honours and awards
Samson was awarded the Order of Merit by the Polish government in 1990 and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, the United Kingdom's national academy, in 2000. In 2018, he received the IRC Harrison Medal from the Society for Musicology in Ireland.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Jim Samson, revision 1370541475 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Williamson, Rosemary. Samson, (Thomas) Jim. Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. 2001. 978-1-56159-263-0.
- 2."Samson, Prof. Thomas James (Jim)", Who's Who (online edition, University of Oxford, December 2018). Retrieved 18 November 2018.
- 3."Professor Jim Samson", Royal Holloway, University of London. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
- 4."Professor Jim Samson", British Academy. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
- 5.Irish Research Council - Harrison Medal | Society for Musicology in Ireland. musicologyireland.com.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 27 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
44,023 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Jim ReidPerson
- Jim RodfordPerson
- Jim RooneyPerson
- Jim RootPerson
- Jim SclavunosPerson
- Jim ScottPerson
- Jim SealsPerson
- Jim SelfPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Jim Samson?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.